Indian equities recover as investors’ confidence returns

Mumbai, March 19 (IANS) Indian stock markets ended in the green Wednesday following strong global cues, indicating a return of investors’ confidence in the wake of the US Fed’s discount rate cut. The markets that opened higher with a huge upsurge of almost 500 points in a benchmark index in the morning could not maintain the tempo and closed weak, below the 15,000 level.

Realty, consumer durables and power scrips continued to be battered though capital goods, IT and automobile scrips gained.

The 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 15,325.79 points and notched a high of 15,465.81 before closing at 14,994.83 points. It gained 161.37 points or 1.09 percent at the day’s close.

The S&P CNX Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which opened at 4,534.75 points, closed at 4,573.95 after touching the day’s high at 4,718.40 points. At close, it registered a rise of 40.95 points or 90 percent.

The BSE Midcap index, which closed at 5,964.10 points, went down 69.81 points or 1.16 percent.

Similarly, the BSE Smallcap index, which closed at 7,222.20 points, went down 143.00 points or 1.94 percent.

On BSE, the market breadth was extremely low with low trading volumes. A total of 758 shares advanced, 1,923 shares declined and 68 shares remained unchanged.

However, other Asian markets also closed in the green Wednesday.

The top gainers of the day included Satyam at Rs.389.95, up 5.24 percent, Tata Motors at Rs.650.45, up 5.08 percent, Wipro at Rs.376.60, up 4.64 percent and Mahindra & Mahindra at Rs.658.40, up 3.49 percent.

The top losers of the day were Hindalco at Rs.154.95, down 4.09 percent, Hindustan Unilever at Rs.225.30, down 2.49 percent, DLF at Rs.623.00, down 1.85 percent and Reliance Energy at Rs.1206.50, down 1.72 percent.